20 questions with no calculator: the four operations, fractions, percentages, order of operations, factors and estimation.
✏️ Paper 1 non-calculator warm-up — Foundation
Paper 1 is worth exactly as much as each calculator paper, and it is the one most Foundation students practise least. This sheet is a warm-up for it: twenty questions drawn from the number and ratio statements that turn up on the non-calculator paper year after year — column arithmetic with decimals and negatives, adding and subtracting fractions, percentages of amounts, priority of operations, factors and multiples, and estimating by rounding to one significant figure. Do it with a pen and nothing else. Twenty-five minutes is about right, but do not stop early if you need longer; the point is to find out which of these have quietly gone rusty, not to score well. Mark it, then go back to the topic page for whichever one cost you the most.
- 1.A mortar mix is made from sand and cement in the ratio 5 : 3. Write the ratio of sand to the total mix in its simplest form.
- 2.Isla and her brother share £60 in the ratio 1:2. Work out Isla's share.
- 3.A textbook is reduced from £60 to £45. Work out the percentage reduction.
- 4.Work out the highest common factor of 15 and 25.
- 5.Tickets to a theme park cost £38.50 for an adult and £19.75 for a child. A family estimates the total cost for 4 adults and 3 children, by rounding each ticket price to the nearest £5. Work out their estimate for the total cost.
- 6.Write 75p : £1.50 as a ratio of whole numbers in its simplest form.
- 7.Work out how many factors 100 has.
- 8.Work out an estimate for 6.4 × 3.9, by rounding each number to the nearest whole number.
- 9.A charity collects donations from adults and children in the ratio 5:2. Altogether, £238 is collected. Work out how much more the adults donate than the children.
- 10.A café orders 340 bread rolls at 24p each and 85 cakes at £1.35 each. Work out the total cost of the order.
- 11.40% of a number is 12 more than 25% of the same number. Work out the number.
- 12.Write 0.325 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 13.A fruit bowl contains 9 apples and 21 oranges. Write down the ratio of apples to oranges in its simplest form.
- 14.In a recipe the mass of chocolate to the mass of milk is in the ratio 1:4. Amelia uses 200 g of milk. Work out the mass of chocolate she needs.
- 15.In the number 3.472, work out the value of the digit 7.
- 16.Write 0.36 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 17.Write the ratio 4x : 6x in its simplest form, where x is a positive number.
- 18.Three numbers are in the ratio 1:2:3. The three numbers add up to 72. Work out the largest of the three numbers.
- 19.A company's turnover this year is £180,000. Last year's turnover was £120,000. Write down this year's turnover as a percentage of last year's turnover.
- 20.Priya adds 3.6 and 0.45 on paper and writes down 3.65 as her answer. Work out the correct value of 3.6 + 0.45.
What is on this worksheet?
The sheet holds 20 questions drawn from the MathsUK bank — the content areas covered: Number, Ratio, proportion and rates of change (statements N2, N3, N4, N10, N12, N14, R4, R5, R9). It is pitched at GCSE Foundation and takes about 25 minutes to work through in full. It is built for independent practice, with full answers at the end for self-marking.
How to use the sheet well
- Print it or open it on screen — both work. Printing is A4; the screen view fits phones and tablets.
- Do all 20 questions before checking — about 25 minutes is the guide, but there is no time pressure.
- Check the answers — press “Show answers” or print the answer page separately.
- Redo the questions you got wrong — twice as effective as doing 20 fresh ones.
- “New questions” — builds a fresh sheet on the same statements, so you can practise again without repeats.
Why this sheet helps
MathsUK worksheets use questions graded by difficulty and a fair spread of correct-answer positions (the answer is not always (a)) — so the student really has to think about each question rather than guess a pattern. Every question is tagged to a DfE content statement and checked before it enters the bank. The answers come with a step-by-step explanation, not just a value — so a wrong answer becomes a lesson.
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